“I’m afraid I’m gonna have to ask you to leave!… You’re having way to much fun. It’s making everyone uncomfortable“.

Nat Faxon and Jim Rash may be familiar to some but they haven’t really been household names over the course of their careers. They are both sometime, bit-part, performers having appeared in numerous TV shows but it wasn’t until 2011 that they earned some well-deserved attention by winning an Oscar for their screenwriting duties on Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants“. Now, they turn their hand to directing and it’s apparent that they’re just as comfortable when calling the shots themselves.

Pam (Toni Collette) and her new boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) are on a summer holiday with his daughter and her son Duncan (Liam James). Duncan is a shy awkward teenager who has trouble adapting to his new “family”. As he struggles to fit in, he eventually finds a friend in man-child Owen (Sam Rockwell) who gives him a job on the local water park and also some good advice on life itself.

As the film opens we are introduced to our young protagonist who’s been relegated to the rear of the family station wagon. This is known as “the way back seat” and also serves us with the reason to the film’s title. This symbolic status is pretty much how the young man has been throughout his awkward teenage years and having his mother’s obnoxious boyfriend talk down to him doesn’t help matters. Straight away we feel for his plight and it’s this very sympathy that drives the film.

On the surface, it shares striking similarities to Greg Mottola’s 2009 film “Adventureland“, in terms of a coming-of-age story set around a summer job on a theme park, but that’s where the comparisons end. Where that film revelled in teenage schmaltz and contrivance, this has an actual beating heart under the surface and benefits from a sharp wit and a perfectly pitched poignancy. On the evidence here, it also shows that co-writer/directors Faxon and Rash have a keen sense of both adolescence and adulthood and that “The Descendants” was no fluke in applying them both. Their characters are well observed and beautifully played by all involved; although it’s nothing new for her, Collette delivers her usual reliability while Carell (who I’m not normally a fan of) underplays his role to perfection and does well to leave his comedic chops to the side and allow others to take over. Young Liam James is entirely convincing in balancing the requisite resentment and sullenness of an introverted 14 year-old without ever losing your sympathy and the wonderfully talented, and vastly underrated, Allison Janney delivers her gregarious and borderline alcoholic, single mother, with aplomb. It’s her quick-fire deliveries that keep the film on comfortable ground through some periodic lulls until, the always excellent, Sam Rockwell makes an appearance. Rockwell has never given a poor performance in my eyes but rarely has he ever stolen the show like he does here. The screen is almost not big enough to contain his charisma and superb comic timing (a lot of which was apparently improvised). As good as the entire cast are, though, a lot of credit has to be given to Faxon and Rash for their engaging writing. The laughs are consistent and never feel forced while it’s sentimentality is in equally good measure. It’s testament to them that a film that really should’ve came across as formulaic and contrived, simply doesn’t. It comes across as fresh, honest and, more importantly, thoroughly enjoyable.

Not only reuniting Carell and Collette from “Little Miss Sunshine“, this is also a reminder of that film’s balance of humour and pathos and captures the same human frailty and ability to overcome.

Mark Walker

Trivia: In order to save money, the filmmakers decided to not get trailers for the actors, and instead decided to rent a house for the duration of filming (approx. 6 weeks), where the actors could go between takes. The house turned into a popular hangout spot for the cast and crew, and they would often go to the house even during weekends or days off.

55 Responses to “The Way, Way Back”

I kinda feel like everybody loves Sam Rockwell. Great review and if I ever stumble across this, I’ll definitely give it a watch – I loved The Descendants a lot for the screenplay, so glad to hear these guys are out and about and good at it.

Thanks man. I thought the timing was spot on too. I couldn’t complain about Trent’s character, though. I normally don’t take to Carrel but I thought he done great here. For the most part, it seemed like he was trying to help but the more his character developed, it was obvious he was an asshole.

Thanks man. It’s certainly worth a watch. The main draw for me was Rockwell and I’m always keen on Allison Janney who is wonderful here. I have to say, though, not being a fan of Carrel’s, it was good to see him do something different.

Everybody in this cast seemed like they were having the time of their lives which, as a result, made me feel the same way. Especially with Rockwell stealing the show with every line he had to deliver, like usual. Good review Mark.

I haven’t got through my emails yet, Ruth, but I’ll definitely stop by and let you know. I’m still playing catch-up to be honest. Trying to juggle my own blog and the DeNiro blog as Tyson has his hands full with his lovely new arrival. 🙂

Cheers Matey! Definitely one of the biggest surprises. I expected it to be half-decent but really didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. Performance wise, nobody put a foot wrong but it was hard for anyone to steal it from Rockwell.

Cheers Mark. I was the same. I was very pleasantly surprised that it kept the laughs coming. The humour never ran out of steam and that’s not an easy thing to do. As everyone seems to be in agreement on… Rockwell was superb!

Thanks Zoe. I’m not a fan either but Carell plays the straight man here and not a very nice one at that. He’s really rather effective and allows the jokes to fly from Rockwell and Allison Janney’s corner instead. Great little film with a great ensemble.

Saw this a few weeks back and even I’d got steady vibes of Adventureland. I connected more with Adventureland than this one…maybe because I am way past my 14 year mark. Nonetheless its a perfectly enjoyable one. Kudos for Sam Rockwell & Liam! Good write up.

I really wasn’t a fan of Adventureland to be honest. Even though the character was older I found its vibe too adolescent. With this though, I found it was more adult due to the supporting characters around the young protagonist. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Thanks for dropping by. 🙂

Great review. Sam Rockwell is just fantastic here, although he’s always great isn’t he?
As for the film, The Way Way Back is crippled from the start by a character I didn’t want to spend any time with. Even when they bring him out of his shell there wasn’t anything there for me to care about thanks to that dreadful combination of poor writing and poorer performance. Give me a movie about Rockwell’s character and there’s something I would be interested in, but as much as he soars the rest of this film utterly sinks.

I actually found the little guy quite appealing and I thought the young fella performed well. There’s no doubt that it’s Rockwell who lifts it to new heights though. It probably wouldn’t have worked as well without him. Thanks for dropping in 🙂

Great review. This has became one of my favorite releases this year because of the cast and the writing. I thought that Liam James was a natural in the role. I quite enjoyed Sam Rockwell’s performance as well.

Great review! I just reviewed this recently too as I managed to catch it in the cinema a few weeks ago. So glad I did! Absolutely loved it – my second favorite film this year (after Rush). I wish there were more films like this…

#1? High praise indeed, Nick. It was a little treat and no mistake. I’d heard good things beforehand and decided to give it a go. In all honesty, I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. Great little film.

Top work man, I love that you love it as much as I did!!! Cast was fantastic, the writing phenomenal and my god is Jim Rash hilarious and hilarious looking in this movie for the brief bit he’s got!!! I rarely buy DVD’s anymore since Netflix is so great, but this one is added to the pile for sure when it’s out! 😀